Gallup: Republicans, Democrats tied at 46 percent

A new weekly nationwide Gallup Poll shows Republicans and Democrats tied at 46 percent, just a week after Gallup set political nerves on edge with a survey showing Republicans 10 points ahead.

The latest poll represents a shift after five consecutive weeks in which Republicans held the advantage. President Obama’s approval rating rose to 47 percent, a level reached only once since mid-July.

“The results reflect more competitive voting intentions than has been the case recently,” Gallup reported. “Republicans’ leads over Democrats among registered voters in three of the previous four weeks were the highest Gallup has measured for this midterm election campaign, and higher than any GOP advantage Gallup has measured in a mid-term election since 1942.”

The Gallup figures track with two new surveys, one an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and the other an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

All show the parties virtually even in a generic poll.

But all have shown a marked advantage for the Republicans in motivation to vote in the fall election.

Gallup results have done some galloping in recent months.

A June poll gave Democrats a 49-43 advantage. It swung back to 46-46. In late July, however, Democrats were again in the lead by a 49-43 margin. The poll then swung sharply toward the Republicans, only again to come up 46-46 in the survey taken between August 30 and September 5.

The latest survey took place as President Obama returned from vacation and delivered an Oval Office speech to announce the official end of Iraq combat operations. It also coincided with Glenn Beck’s big Washington, D.C., rally, in which the talk show host announced that God was coming back to America.

Republicans have often been able to turn out more of their voters in low-turnout mid-term elections.

The GOP won a major victory in 1994 – and picked up six House seats in Washington – on a national turnout of just 37 percent of the vote.

At a Monday rally in Seattle, Machinists Union President Tom Buffenbarger appealed for union members to vote in the November election, and to reelect endangered Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.

Murray has been on her own poll roller coaster.

She trailed GOP Senate nominee Dino Rossi by two points in a Rasmussen survey last week. A previous Survey/USA poll had given Rossi a 52-45 lead. But Murray has a 50-45 lead in a poll taken for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee by the Fairbank-Maslin firm.